The Washington Post, the newspaper that brought down a US president, has been
sold for $250 million (£163 million) to the billionaire founder of Amazon.

Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein were played by Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman in the 1976 political thriller 'All the President's Men' about the Watergate scandalPhoto: WARNER/REX

Jeff Bezos, the chairman of the internet retail giant, will become the sole owner of the US capital's most prestigious news outlet, bringing to an end four generations of leadership by the Graham family.

Claiming to have a "fantastic day-job" Mr Bezos, 49, said he would not interfere with the day-to-day running of the newspaper, whose exposure of the Watergate scandal led to Richard Nixon's resignation in 1974.

"The values of The Post do not need changing," Mr Bezos, who is worth some $23.2 billion (£15.1 billion), said last night. "The duty of the paper is to the readers, not the owners." The sale of the ink-and-paper home of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein to one of the leading lights of electronic media was hailed last night as a landmark moment in the history of American journalism.

However, the surprise purchase was completed by Mr Bezos himself rather than Amazon, the website that has revolutionised bookselling and online shopping since 1994, which will play no part in the deal.

It completed a remarkable three days in which The Boston Globe and Newsweek, two other major US media brands, were sold by their owners after multi-million-dollars losses since their heydays.

Amid tough conditions for international media companies, The Washington Post has endured a sharp decline in circulation, falling by about seven per cent year-on-year according to the latest figures.

The Washington Post Company's newspaper division, of which The Washington Post newspaper is the flagship title, has suffered a 44 per cent decline in revenues over the past six years.

While continuing to win a string of Pulitzer prizes, it has in recent years closed all of its regional bureaux across the US, while also making reductions to the number of its foreign correspondents overseas.

Media commentators were quick to draw comparisons between the price accepted for the newspaper and those attracted by recent new-media upstarts such as Instagram, the online photo-sharing service, which sold for $1 billion (£650 million) to Facebook last year.

Donald Graham, the company's chief executive, said last night that interest from Mr Bezos had softened his family's staunch opposition to selling the newspaper that it has led for some 80 years.

"We wanted to do more than survive," said Mr Graham, whose mother Katharine was publisher in the Watergate era. "I'm not saying this guarantees success but it gives us a much greater chance of success." Katharine Weymouth, the newspaper's current publisher and Mr Graham's niece, said they were resolute that a buyer "had to share our values and commitment to journalism or we wouldn't sell it." "This is a day that my family and I never expected to come," she said. "The Washington Post Company is selling the newspaper that it has owned and nurtured for eight decades ".

The sale comprises the newspaper, its website and a handful of other newspapers and printing operations. It does not include its potentially lucrative headquarters in downtown Washington.

The remaining Washington Post company, which is to be renamed, will retain ownership of several other news outlets and properties such as Kaplan, an education firm and is its most profitable arm.

Martin Baron, the newspaper's editor since January, is expected to remain in his position and no lay-offs of journalists are anticipated, the newspaper's 2,000 employees were told in a presentation by Ms Weymouth last night.

Mr Bezos has won plaudits for the extraordinary success of Amazon, which he founded at 30 with a loan from his parents, and which enjoyed sales of $61 billion (£39 billion) last year. However he has been sharply criticised for the firm's elaborate accounting set-up, which has allowed it to minimise tax.

It posted a loss of nearly $40 million (£26 million) last year, which it attributed to heavy investments in its Kindle e-reader business and global infrastructure of factories and distribution.

In a short letter to staff, Mr Bezos signalled that he would seek some changes in the company: “We will need to invent, which means we will need to experiment,” he said. However he also encouraged the newspaper’s reporters to “follow the story, no matter the cost”.